Black
sea glass was my first true fascination in the vast world of beach combing.
From the moment I learned of its existence and subsequently, its origin, I was
intrigued. Each trip to the beach became completely focused on finding as many
black pieces as possible. I couldn't believe that these ancient gems had been
laying there all along, masquerading as rocks along the pebbly shoreline that
we frequented everyday.
This was also a turning point for me as a beach comber. This was when I
realized the great historical value of sea glass – something more than just a
smoothed, colored shard of glass.

The most notable thing about searching for black
sea glass is thatto the
untrained eye, it is extremelyhard to distinguish from black beach
stones. I used to pick up and analyze each and every smooth black stone I would
find. In the beginning, my husband and I even resorted to cracking open a few
of them for investigative purposes. We soon discovered that most of the pieces
that we mistook for sea glass were actually obsidian and other types of
igneous(volcanic) rocks. It really is a matter of training your eyes to spot them
– and by “training” I mean a combination of focusing, straining, squinting and
opening your eyes as wide as physically possible, while making weird faces as
you stoop at the shoreline, scaring every person who crosses your path. But
hey, it’s better to scare them away than for them to discover that you are
actually hunting for treasure, right? Anyway, getting used to what the texture
of black sea glass looks like helps a lot too. The time of day is also a key
factor. When there is more shadow, I find that the texture is easier to
identify.

Almost all black sea glass is not truly black. I
would say that 2% of the black pieces in our collection aretrulyblack, through and through. The other
98% are actually olive green, deep emerald green, dark amber, greenish
amber and more rare – black blue and black amethyst. In order to determine the
true color, you need a good flashlight (my tiny, but powerful phone flashlight
has proven to be perfect for this task) and a bit of patience. Sometimes the
only light that penetrates the piece is through a minuscule bubble or
thinner/chipped corner. When a good amount of light does penetrate, you usually
can see tons of tiny bubbles trapped in the glass, which I think is really
cool. Ancient glass makers often times hand-molded glass, even in large
quantities. The bubbles are a clear indication of the age of the glass and
crude nature of early glass production. Later, the use of a mold would be
employed in large productions.

In some big chunks of black, I often see what
looks like dark gray/brown metal blended into the frosty finish. This is
probably due to the addition of iron slag in the molten glass formula.This was done to add opacity and
strengthen glass that was often subjected to rough conditions. If you check out
ourGlass
Color Processpage,
you’ll see that most glass colors are obtained through the addition of certain
metals and oxides. In many cases, this is done not only for color, but for
strength as well.

The beauty of black sea glass is not only because
of its dark color, it is also due to its rarity and historical significance.Black
sea glass found here
on the Italian Riviera is much older than it is in most other
places. This is entirely due to the fact that the Italian Riviera lies along
the oldest trade and shipping route inEurope.
As we have discussed on the Historypage, in our area, glass making goes as far
back as the 14th century. Often times, divers find Roman pottery and even glass
on the sea floor, which in that case is even older than the 14th century.Thisis my main fascination with black sea
glass, its very old age and origins. At one point I even started calling it
"Cristoforo Colombo glass"(aka Christopher Colombus), as the Italian
Riviera was his home for much of his life. I'm sure at least some of the glass
we find was on one of his ships at some point, or at least I'll pretend that it
was. I always imagine a scenario of a crew member setting out with his ship for
the beginning of a long voyage, finishing his first bottle of grappa.. or
whatever he was drinking.. and then drunkenly stumbling into a stack of crates
filled with glass bottles, and all of them tumbling into the sea. But yeah,
this probably didn’t happen and I am just a daydreamer. Maybe they were filled
with other local Liguriandigestivi,
which are typically herb-infused after-meal liquors – some sweet, some
bitter(amaro). Plants such as olive, basil(my favorite!), myrtle, angelica,
anise, apricot(amaretto) and lemon(everybody knows limoncello!) are commonly
used to makedigestivi.I know, I know, the bottles
weren’talwaysfilled with liquor. They were also
used for medicines, tinctures, poisons, extracts, etc.

Of all of the colors of sea glass, black instills
in me a strong feeling of being connected to ancient history and truly feeling
like a treasure hunter.

Do you have a
special technique for spotting black sea glass? Tell me about it!

Hello! Just wanted to let the world know that we have completed a new section of the site called Glass Color Process. If you ever were curious as to how certain pieces of sea glass got their beautiful color, we urge you to check it out! In the new section, we have also created a group of "glass color info cards" that we hope you may find useful! More to come!

We finally completed the IDENTIFICATION section of the site! Here you will find photo comparisons and a breakdown of the four main characteristics for identifying sea glass. Currently we are working to finish the Color Chart section and the Gallery section!

Just wanted to announce that we have updated both the HISTORY and ART GLASS pages in the Italian Sea Glass section of the site. Over the next few weeks, we are aiming to complete the other sections as well! Stay tuned!